Dennis Rudnick

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Dennis Rudnick

Associate Professor of Elementary Education

Elementary Education and Literacy

Biography

Dr. Dennis L. Rudnick has over 30 years’ experience as an educator, researcher, administrator, facilitator, program developer, consultant, and public speaker on multicultural, civil rights, and social justice issues. Dr. Rudnick formerly served as an Assistant Professor and Dean’s Diversity Fellow at Missouri State University, and Associate Director of Multicultural Education and Research at Indiana University–Purdue University Indianapolis.

Research Interests

    Dr. Rudnick’s research explores the intersections of equity, identity, and power in teacher education, with a focus on how educators confront and navigate systemic oppression in schools and society. His work critically examines divide-and-conquer strategies that undermine solidarity across lines of race, class, gender, and other dimensions of difference, while elevating pathways toward justice-oriented collaboration. Drawing on critical race theory, culturally sustaining pedagogies, and virtue ethics, Dr. Rudnick investigates how educators develop critical consciousness and enact liberatory practices within and beyond the classroom. His scholarship is both deeply reflective and action-oriented, aiming to transform education into a more humanizing and democratic endeavor.

    His recent scholarship includes “Reclaiming Social Studies Teacher Education with Counter Narratives: Challenging the ‘Happy Slave’ Mythos,” in Black History Bulletin; “The Least Racist White Person in the Room,” published in Unhooking from Whiteness (3rd ed.); “Dilemmas in Asynchronous Multicultural Teacher Education from a Relational Pedagogy Perspective,” published in the Handbook of Research on Opening Pathways for Marginalized Individuals in Higher Education; and “Walking on Egg Shells: Colorblind Ideology and Race Talk in Teacher Education,” published in Multicultural Education Review. He is the Editor of Resisting Divide-and-Conquer Strategies in Education: Pathways and Possibilities, winner of the 2025 Society of Professors of Education Outstanding Book Award.

Teaching Interests

    Dr. Rudnick’s teaching interests center on multicultural education, critical social studies, and teacher preparation rooted in equity and justice. Grounded in critical pedagogy, his philosophy emphasizes the importance of dialogue, self-reflection, and civic engagement as tools for personal and collective transformation. Drawing from his own experiences navigating identity, privilege, and otherness, he fosters classroom communities that challenge dominant narratives, encourage counter-storytelling, and nurture culturally sustaining and critically conscious educators. Dr. Rudnick’s courses empower future teachers to recognize and resist divide-and-conquer strategies in education, equipping them to teach for liberation and democratic possibility.

Education

PhD in Curriculum & Instruction: Multicultural Education

University of Washington

Other in Curriculum & Instruction: Multicultural Education

University of Washington

BA in Sociology

University of Mary Washington

Published Works

    Rudnick, L. D., Atkinson, C. J. (2026). Duoethnography as collaborative and transformative praxis: Modeling critical onto-epistemological work in teacher education. Educational Studies, 62(1), 58-77. https://doi.org/10.1080/00131946.2025.2595683. Gonzales, A. A., Rudnick, L. D. . Counter-narrative story maps in social studies. (). Emerald Publishing. Rudnick, M. L., Rudnick, L. D. . “I should know”: Intergenerational inquiry into development, power, and possibility. (). Peter Lang. Rudnick, L. D. (2025). Inclusion is Not a Microwavable Meal: Cooking Up Critical Embrace in Academic Communities. (pp 143-157). Myers Education Press. Rudnick, L. D. . Book Review of Raised to Obey: The Rise and Spread of Mass Education. Journal of Education Policy, Rudnick, L. D. (2024). Reclaiming social studies teacher education with counter narratives: Challenging the “happy slave” mythos. Black History Bulletin, 87(1), 23-28. . Rudnick, L. D. (2024). Resisting divide-and-conquer strategies in education: Pathways and possibilities. (pp 352). Myers Education Press. https://myersedpress.presswarehouse.com/browse/book/9781975505981/Resisting-Divide-and-Conquer-Strategies-in-Education Bolyard, C., Baker, M. A., Rudnick, L. D. (2022). Dilemmas in asynchronous multicultural teacher education from a relational pedagogy perspective. (pp 123-146). IGI Global. Finley, S., Rudnick, L. D. (2022). ApPARENTly we’re scholars: ParentScholars navigating academia.. (). . Rudnick, L. D. (2021). Book Review of Identity, Culture, and Belonging: Educating Young Children for a Changing World. Teachers College Record , https://www.tcrecord.org Rudnick, L. D. (2021). The Least Racist White Person in the Room: Towards Critical Authenticity. (Issue 3rd edition, pp 10 pages). Brill Press. Rudnick, L. D. (2021). Foreword (A Perspective of Multicultural Education and Diversity). Kendall Hunt, Rudnick, L. D., McCafferty-Wright, J., King, E. (2020). Teach-In for Anti-Racism. Hough Post, Rudnick, L. D. (2019). Culturally Responsive Assessment is Just Good Assessment (Equity Response). National Institute of Learning Outcomes Assessment. Mohammad, U., Naveed, I., Rudnick, L. D. (2019). Radical Rejections of Violence: Resisting Anti-Muslim Racism. Journal of Critical Thought and Praxis, 8(1), 46-66. http://lib.dr.iastate.edu/. Rudnick, L. D. (2019). Walking on Egg Shells: Colorblind Ideology and Race Talk in Teacher Education. Multicultural Education Review, 11(3), 216-233. Rudnick, L. D. (2012). Colorblind Perspective, Research Findings. Sage, Rudnick, L. D. (2009). The Routledge International Companion to Multicultural Education (Editorial Research Assistant). Routledge,